What happens if the Waymo computer fails?

You buckle into the back seat of a Waymo, the doors close and there is nobody behind the wheel.

For some riders, that empty driver's seat still takes a little getting used to.

Then another thought creeps in.

What happens if the Waymo computer doing all the driving suddenly fails? Waymo has now given us its first detailed look at the powerful computing system hidden inside its driverless vehicles.

The company describes a machine built to make decisions in milliseconds without waiting for the cloud or a remote human driver.

More importantly, Waymo says it built backups into the system because there is no person sitting up front who can grab the wheel.

So, what actually happens when the electronic driver has a problem? Missed CyberGuy LIVE? Watch the Protect Your Money replay Our free CyberGuy LIVE class, Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest Threats , has ended, but you can still watch the full replay and download our financial protection checklist.

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Get the free replay and checklist now at CyberGuyLive.com TERRIFIED PASSENGERS FILM WAYMO AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE DRIVING INTO LIVE FIREWORKS IN SAN FRANCISCO Waymo says its newest compute system works somewhat like two independent engines.

During normal driving, both computing systems can run full workloads in parallel.

If one develops a fault, Waymo says the other can take over.

That gives the vehicle another electronic driver already onboard rather than forcing it to wait for someone miles away to intervene.